Full Tide (16 page)

He was half at her back and not touching her, but she was conscious of his shrug. “The immigration officers come aboard at about eight-thirty, and maybe you’ll get ashore a couple of hours later. Take a walk round and go and see the Castle before lunch. The Botanic Gardens are close to the town and worth a visit, and y
o
u shouldn’t miss the flower market outside the Post Office; you’ll be amazed and delighted at the range of
S
outh African flowers. You won’t
have time to go up the aerial cableway to the summit of Table Mountain.”

“
So you advise the usual tourist sights?”

“Why not?” he said abruptly. “You haven’t seen them yet. Later on you may be able to go down to Cape Town for a few days.” His hand went to his pocket. “Cigarette?”

“No, thank you.”

She heard the sharp crack of a match and caught a
w
hiff of smoke.

“I have a warm
corner
for Cape Town,” he said. “I like its age and mixture of peoples, I like the mountain and the noisy Atlantic where it collides with the Indian Ocean, and I like the African oaks and pines and all the sub-tropical trees. If I were settling somewhere for the next ten years of my life I’d choose Cape Town.”

The place, as he had described it, would suit him, she thought wryly. Huge docks to harbor his beloved ships; a touch of history in the Castle, and here and there in the street, a polyglot humanity, as well as the white population housed in the outlying residential areas. And behind it all, the famous, rugged mountain.

For something to say she stated, “I’ve hea
rd
that Durban is a better place to live.”

“It is
for some people,” he said offhandedly.

A queer pause followed. Then on a note of vexation he demanded, “Where did you get hold of this frock? It’s stagey and artificial—at least it is when compared with your usual simple clothing—and it must have cost plenty.
I don’t believe it’s yours at all!”

She swung round and faced him in swift anger. “How clever of you
!
It isn’t mine. I borrowed it—but not from Astra—if that’s what you’re implying. I borrowed it so that I shouldn’t disgrace this gala night of yours.
”

“Don’t be absurd.”

She fought down a choking thickness in her throat. “You wouldn’t understand.
You don’t have
contact with ordinary working women. You’re accustomed to a type who can wear a different get-up every night. You wouldn’t have it that they look
stagey, because it’s natural for them to wear rich frocks. That was a hateful thing to say!”

“You’re a fool,” he said roughly, staring down at her from under straight dark brows. “Every woman has her own atmosphere and yours happens to be one of freshness and simplicity. The sort of clothes that fit Astra like a second skin are out of place on you. That was all I meant.”

Hi
s
open reference to the actress did something to Lisa
. H
er temper, normally hard to rouse and not virulent at its worst, flared out in a challenge.

“I see. Astra Carmichael can carry wealth, but I can’t!
The fact doesn’t worry me much—but who are you to judge? What do you know of any other kind of woman
?”

“If you raise your voice much higher,” he interrupted in tones gone tough and cold as iron, “you’ll stop the music.
”

“You’re always in command, aren’t you—of yourself and everyone else! You say what you like, and don’t care who’s hurt.”

“Be quiet, Lisa. If I hurt you, I’m sorry
. I
certainly
didn’t mean to. You’re letting yourself go because you’re
t
ired.”

Hands behind her gripping the rail and her whole being held stiff to avoid trembling, Lisa tilted her chin. Blood drummed in her ears and throbbed in her tensed muscles, but somehow she spoke intelligibly, if bitterly.

“Yes, I’m tired. Tired of your fraternal interest, and horribly tired of being put in my place in the beastliest manner you can contrive. Being captain of the ship doesn’t make you guardian of the souls on board. We all got along without you before and will do so again. I suppose it was pure bad luck that of all the ships which sail to Africa I should have picked on the
Wentworth
.”

“Bad luck for both of us,” he said crisply. “I think we’ll leave it there.”

She thought he would have gone then, but he hesitated and addressed her with a curious inflexion, “Lisa do I really make you unhappy? Was it through me that you missed the play-reading last night?”

This was perilous ground. To admit it was also to admit his power over her, and Mark might.be merciless to a woman whom he knew himself to hold in the hollow of his palm. She forced herself to relax a little and to smile with a semblance of flippancy.

“If I’d really wanted to witness the much-publicized play-reading I’d have stuck it out, in spite of your proximity. The fact was, I was feeling a need of the sleep I hadn’t had the night before, when we shared a pot of tea in the surgery. Remember?”

“Yes, I remember.” He sounded curt and speculative, but his face was dark and unreadable. “I remember other things, too.” On a metallic note he added, “There’s no accounting for some of the changes which overtake us, is there? Goodnight.”

For a few minutes Lisa stayed on there, alone. Her mind went after him, saw him having a word with the officer of the watch, writing a few notes at the big desk before lying down in the inner cabin for a brief rest in readiness to
take over again on the bridge.

Already he would have forgotten Lisa, but she would never forget those clipped, frosty words of his: “Bad luck for both of us!” Meaning, of course, that her presence on his ship had brought him only trouble. Well, it was true, she reflected wearily. Neither had done much good for the other; there had always been just a shade more enmity than friendliness between them, often a great deal more than a shade.

When she undressed in her cabin that night Lisa at once hung up the green frock and dropped over it the flowered cotton dress-cover which had protected the aquamarine. She would have liked never to have to look at it again.

Cape Town, when
L
isa first saw it through her porthole, was a scintillating mass of lights in the pre-dawn darkness. Then morning broke and the sun came up flamboyantly over the horizon to show the big, sprawling city at the foot of the flat-topped mountain which is recognized with affection by sailors from all the ends of the earth. After so many days of boundless sea, it was a sight to catch the breath, but Lisa looked upon it dispassionately. She seemed fated to be robbed of the excitement of the journey.

The
Wentworth
moved in from the Bay to the quay soon after eight, and almost at once a batch of customs and immigration officers came aboard. This being the port of entry into the Union, everyone’s papers had to be cleared, a tedious business which rather stretched the passengers
’
leave-taking into absurdity.

It was nearly eleven w
h
en Mrs. Basson carried Nancy off for the day to Muizenberg, and Lisa and Jeremy took a taxi along the King’s Way into the town. Here, Jeremy proudly displayed his knowledge. He was on home ground, and glad of it.

After the springy timber of the decks, the pavements were hard and unyielding, but Lisa overcame a tendency to sway with the ship and deliberately put all thought of Mark behind her. This was to be a day away from the
Wentworth,
away from all its associations.

Jeremy was buoyant as the breeze. “Look
at the
fru
i
t in the shops, Lee! I’d almost forgotten what a guava looks like. And those wrinkled things are passion fruit, so-called because the outside is tough and the juice heavenly but pippy
.
” The homemade simile amused him and he laughed. “Let’s buy some of everything and take them to the Gardens. What we don’t eat we can throw to the squirrels.
”

Lisa looked at the shops packed with good things to eat and to wear. She looked at the people who crowded the pavements; Malays, Indians, Colored with a Hottentot cast, a few Chinese, and pure natives from inland. The white women were dressed in the newest fashions, the white men wore light suits and appeared to have all the time in the world at their disposal.

Jeremy sniffed in the conglomeration of smells and closed his eyes. “Ecstasy,” he murmured. "I’m walking in South Africa with you. Just wait till you see Durban.”

Lisa became infected. She sat in the Botanic Gardens and let the squirrels run over her lap; she marvelled at the gargantuan tropic trees, the massive gold and pink lilies foaming over one of the ponds, the flowering shrubs and the bright, chittering birds. Jeremy ducked under a wire fence, vanished for a minute among the bushes and reappeared bearing three great speckled orchids.

“Flowers for my love,” he said, “whisking a pin from his own lapel to secure the blooms to hers.

“Did you steal them?”

“They sat waiting under a tree, all sad in the dark. Don’t tell me there’s an orchid anywhere that wouldn’t prefer a short life near milady’s heart, to an unloved, drawn-out existence in the shadows
!
”

She laughed with him and when his swinging hand caught hers she let him keep it. He had forgiven her for walking out on the play-reading.

Somehow, they didn’t get as far as the Castle. There was so much to stop and see, so many things to exclaim over, so many jokes to share. Indeed, they were only just on time for the lunch appointment which Jeremy had made by telephone with his aunt and uncle.

The hotel in which, these affluent relatives of his were staying was cool and spacious, though it overlooked a busy thoroughfare. Lisa came into the vestibule blinking a little and smiling with relief at leaving the sun for a while. A rubicund, white-haired man got up from a chair and extended a hand.

“Well, Jeremy,
my boy. So you’re back in the homeland!
”

“
Hello, Uncle Charles.” Jeremy bent to give a solicitous peck at the papery brown cheek of his aunt.
“
Auntie Bess, you look younger every year!” He straightened. “I told you I’d bring Lisa, and here she is. Isn’t she sweet!”

An unconventional introduction, but the old couple loved it. It occurred to Lisa that Jeremy could be very wise in his handling of people; no doubt that was how he had so far got through with Astra, without committing himself.

The uncle and aunt were dears. Lisa sat next to the old lady, talked a bit about the trip and listened to experiences which had been Auntie Bess’s over forty year
s
before, when South Africa was still largely without made roads. There had been a wagon trek, from the Cape to the Transvaal which had taken four months, and disasters galore which had moulded the character of earlier generations. Everything, one gathered, was much too easy nowadays.

“So you got your degree, Jeremy,” boomed his uncle
.
“Your mother wrote us about it. She was overjoyed.”

As if there were not, and never had been, any suggestion of another type of career, Jeremy answered blithely
, “
I felt good about it too. Lisa’s all for technical men, aren’t you, darling?”

At the endearment the aunt’s eyes glowed and she patted Lisa’s wrist. This, apparently, was even better than she had hoped for.

The luncheon went well. Uncle Charles put leading questions and his wife put dozens which seemed to lead
nowhere yet caused much sprightly conversation. Lisa
a
nd Jeremy must drive out to Sea Point with them that
afternoon, and for dinner that evening they w
e
re having guests who would all remember Jeremy and be only too happy to meet Lisa.

Lisa said nothing about
her appointment at the Monarch Hotel. “I’ll have to go back to the ship and
change, and see that Nancy’s taken care of,” she told them, knowing that the date at the Monarch would
h
ave to be thought over before then.

“That’s easily arranged. I’d like to meet the little girl, too.”

“She’s a brat,” said Jeremy good-humoredly, “but you’ll probably like her. She has immense respect for women.”

They had coffee and came, in leisurely style, back to the vestibule where
L
isa and Jeremy were to wait while his aunt and uncle went to their suite for hats and a camera. But as all four awaited the lift, something happened which, Lisa decided much later, might have altered and decided the course of her life.

The lift was sighing its way down from the eighth floor, a colored attendant stood at attention nearby and Uncle Charles was humming to himself. These unimportant details had impressed themselves upon Lisa when she heard a small exclamation from Jeremy.

“Oh, oh!” he said under his breath, and managed to look his most nonchalant.